Finding Your Germanic Ancestral Home

Finding Your Germanic Ancestral Home

To Successfully Find Your Ancestor s Records, You Need Three Things A correct surname The date of an event in the life of your ancestor A location

Name Issues Many immigrants anglacized the spelling of their surname or shortened their name, for example: Gühr to Gerr or Falkenhagen to Hagen Some immigrants may have changed their name to the English equivalent, for example: Zimmerman to Carpenter or Klein to Little Some surnames reflect a place of residence such as a large farm, especially in Westphalia.

Date Issues Which is the correct Date? Dec 6, 1833 or Jun 12, 1833 Correct Answer: 12 Jun 1823 Germans write their dates as day, month, year divided by periods, not slashes.

Months ending in -ber 7ber = September 8ber = October 9ber = November 10ber = December The early Roman calendar began Mar 1 st and had 10 months. The calendar introduced by Julius Ceasar began Jan 1 st. Because of pagan celebrations associated with Jan 1st, medieval Europe began celebrating the new year on March 25 th (Easter).

Germanic States-Map 1815

Location Issues There is no central repository for German parish or civil registers. In order to locate parish or civil records, you must know the exact place of the ancestral home.

Check for towns with the same name which are located in different parts of Germany

Where to find the map book at the library The map for Germany is located on the third shelf of this reference table.

Watch for prefixes that may have been added to a place name Groß (large) Klein (small) Nord-, Süd-, Ost-, West-, Wester- (north, south, east, or west) Unter (under) Hinter (behind or in back of) Mittle (in the middle of) Ober (over) Neu (new) If you have trouble locating a place-name that may have one of these prefixes, drop the prefix and look for the basic name.

Where You Should Search First Step 1--Search Familysearch.com and Ancestry.com to make sure no one has already done the research. Familysearch has 50 collections of German Records, including 37.7 million extracted births from 1558-1898 8.5 million extracted marriages from 1558-1929 3.5 million extracted deaths from 1558-1958

How to Find German Collections on familysearch.org

Step 2 Check Passenger Lists Germans predominately immigrated from: Hamburg Bremen Rotterdam

Three Major Waves of German Immigrants First wave: 1683-1773 Immigrants came from the Palatinate (Phalz area) 2 nd wave: 1820-1870 3 rd wave: from Russia; primarily settled in Nebraska and the Dakotas (see internet site Odessa3.org)

First Wave of German Immigrants 1683-1773 1683--1 st German settlement in America. 1710-1723 Queen Anne of England granted refuge to 7,000 immigrants from the Palatinate. Settled predominately in Berks and Lancaster County, PA and New York.

Books to Search for Palatinate Immigrants 1683-1776 Yoder, Donald, ed. Emigrants from Wuerttemberg; The Adolf Gerber Lists. The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society. Vol. 10. Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1945. (974.8 F2pg) Rupp, Israel Daniel. Thirty Thousand names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French, and Other Immigrants in Pennsylvania From 1727 to 1776. 2nd rev. ed. Philadelphia: Leary, Stuart Co., 1927. (974.8 W2ra) Strassburger, Ralph Beaver. Pennsylvania German Pioneers. Norristown, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania German Society, 1934. (974.811 W3s) Each of these works is completely indexed and in Mesa Library.

2 nd Wave: 1820-1860

Third Wave 1. 1773 Catherine the Great offered Germans who agreed to immigrate to Russia: free land freedom of religion, no military service free self-government 2. 104 German communities established along the Volga River by religious persuasion Catholic or Protestant 3. 1873 Russians revoke Catherine s manifesto

Where to Look for Passenger Lists Hamburg Passenger Lists Bremen Passenger Lists Germans to America (covers 1840-1897) in MFSHC (call number 973 W2r ger). Wuerttemberg Emigration Index If your ancestors are from Westphalia, check internet site Westphaliaemigration.de

Step 3 Determine year of immigration. Then look for clues on vital and naturalization records found here in the USA. --Check the 1900 and 1910 censuses to find year of immigration. --Or check city directories to see when your immigrant first appeared. --You want the Declaration of Intention, usually filed in the county of residence.

How do you find films of naturalization records? Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States by Christina K. Schaefer On Reference Wall 973 P4s

Step 4 important! Be familiar with geographical areas of Germany prior to 1871

Modern Day Germany

If ancestors are from Pommern, East or West Prussia-- Use Muller s (red book) in the atlas reference section of the library to find the town name in present day Poland (943 E5m)

Step 5 Very important! Build out the extended family group sheet as much as possible. --Use obituaries --Research siblings --Use surname searches

John P. Jepson and Antonia Falkenhagen

What I Knew About John and Antonia Their birthdates (source: 1900 census) The year they immigrated (source: 1900 census) Antonia came alone from Bremen at age 19. (source: Germans to America) They married about 1888 in the United States. First five children were born in Minnesota. By 1910 the family moved to South Dakota.

What I needed to find Their birthplaces Siblings? Parents Names

What I Did Next-- I obtained a copy of their marriage license and certificate. No parents were listed.

I Sent for the Death Certificate Birthplace: Germany Father: Joe Hagen (highly unlikely) Mother: none listed

Breakthrough Family Book w/obituaries

Army Enlistment for Soren P. Jepson Birthplace: Oster Linnet

What I Learned from the Family Book & Obituaries Antonia s obituary said she was born in Helztein, Germany. Book said Antonia s brother was born in Flitenstein. (A check of the map showed no such places). Book showed Antonia had three siblings who had immigrated. --Marie md. Mathias Fritz in Germany. Their first child Mathilda was born in Germany in 1877. --Susanna --Joseph Falkenhagen who changed his surname to Hagen --On the 1920 census Joseph said he was born in West Prussia.

Further Research Revealed I returned to Familysearch.com s extracted German marriages to look for Marie and Mathias marriage. --Found--A Marie Falkenhagen married a Mathias Fritz on 11 Dec 1876 in Flötenstein, West Prussia. (Right time period; right area of the country) --Parents of the bride were: Andreas Falkenhagen and Suzanne Loeper (Susanne was the name of one of Antonia s sisters Hmm!) --Further research on Familysearch showed sister Susanne in the system and her birthplace as Flötenstein.

Flötenstein Ancestral Home!

Once you think you ve pinpointed the ancestral home, how do you find out if the genealogical library in Salt Lake has any films of records for your ancestral home?

How to determine whether Salt Lake has a film for your town:

Mother of Exiles Give me your tired; your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. Emma Lazarus